The International Monetary Fund prescribed some familiar economic medicine to Kuwait following a visit last week by its deputy managing director: advance economic diversification goals through policy reform while getting more citizens off of the government rolls and into private-sector jobs.

That’s advice energy-revenue-dependent Arab Gulf countries have heard before, and in some cases have found difficult to follow. But it appears increasingly evident that Kuwait’s leadership is taking a reform and diversification agenda more seriously after lagging in those departments for years.

Min Zhu, the IMF deputy and a former deputy governor of China’s central bank, echoed those points following his two-day visit last week. There’s evidence of progress in Kuwait’s non-oil GDP growth, which the IMF expects to hit 3.9% this year, but – and there’s always a “but” in assessments of Gulf economies – the country needed “structural reforms” to improve the business environment, diversify away from oil and create private-sector jobs.

The same dynamics hold true across the Gulf, Mr. Zhu said.

“The GCC countries remain susceptible to fluctuations in oil production and price movements in the international oil market,” he said in an emailed statement. “They need greater economic diversification to help boost productivity and living standards, create jobs, and reduce the fiscal and external risks associated with the heavy reliance on oil revenues.”

All of this is easier said than done in Kuwait, where the socio-political setup has for generations tilted on the axis of an oil-funded government backstop for citizens. Like most of its peers in the Gulf, energy plays a starring role in the economy – Kuwait has more than 100 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Energy receipts also supply a huge chunk of government revenues. And as in many neighboring countries, a significant portion of those revenues goes from the ruling elite to the citizenry through high-paying government jobs, government-supplied housing and other benefits.

This government reliance extends in Kuwait to a special fondness for bailouts in times of crisis, which has a history stretching at least to the 1983 Souq Al Manakh crisis. After the collapse of the Souq Al Manakh, a speculative parallel stock market scheme based in a parking garage, the government paid back billions of dollars of citizens’ losses. The government subsequently forgave citizens’ debts after the first Gulf War and followed up with more debt forgiveness after the recent global financial crisis.

Kuwait has followed Abu Dhabi, Qatar and other parts of the region in adopting a “Kuwait Vision 2035” a few years ago to guide its development and diversification, but the country has been relatively slow in implementing these strategies and taking reform recommendations. The country’s uniquely fractious political scene and frequent government reshuffles might have something to do with it, but the recent murmurings from the IMF and central bank suggest there’s a fresh push for change that aims for a more market-driven, less oil-dependent economy.